A Walk in the Park
by Alison May
Summary: Years after their last meeting, Rory and Tristan share a chance encounter in a park.


This is set in the indefinite future and follows the Gilmore Girls cannon more or less. One-shot story.

A Walk in the Park

Whenever he saw a blue-eyed brunette, his head turned. Slender brunettes drinking coffee, reading books in public places, or walking with a certain bounce in their step always caught his attention. At the right society functions he never stopped searching for a particular brown head. After a few years he decided that it was subconscious. Some part of his brain examined every brunette he encountered so that the one day it was the right one he wouldn't miss his chance.

If you knew enough to ask him he could pinpoint the day that he stopped his appraisal of every passing brown haired woman. He would like to be able to say that it was on the day he married a beautiful blond. But he knew that wasn't the truth. His wife never commented on his brunette fixation, although she noticed.

The day he stopped looking was several years later when a new brunette came into his life, his daughter. And every fiber of his being loved the small new life with bright blue eyes and dark hair.

And so it didn't surprise him years after, that when Rory Gilmore walked back into his life that she saw him first.

He was watching his daughter on the swings in a park near their house when it happened.

"Tristan DuGrey?" called a familiar voice. Despite all the years, he still knew her without turning around.

"Rory Gilmore." He answered and proceeded to study her. The brown hair was the same, although shorter as it peaked out of a fuzzy blue hat. Her blue eyes sparkled and she was stylishly and snugly bundled up against the chill in the air. Her hands gripped a coffee mug and he could see the edge of a book peaking out of her bag. He smiled widely. Some things never change. Rory was the first to speak.

"She's beautiful. Yours?" Rory asked indicating the little girl on the swings.

"Yes. She'll be three years old in March." he answered beaming proudly. Rory smiled and studied the small girl on the swings.

"Are you married?" Rory asked calmly and personably.

"Five years." He answered with a simile that was very different from his old trademark smirk.

"Good for you." Rory responded.

"Are you visiting Boston?" Tristan questioned.

"I'm here visiting my fiancée."

"Is he anyone I know?" Tristan asked playfully. For a moment he felt like the old Tristan and then just as quickly it was gone.

"You don't know him." She answered smiling.

"I'm happy for you." He told her and sincerely meant it. Neither responded for a moment and they both studied the other thoughtfully. Finally Rory broke the silence.

"You've changed so much."

"We can't all change as little as you have, Mary." Tristan responded. He was surprised how easily it was to return to their old banter with her. But he realized that a certain antagonistic, sexually charged edge was gone and now it really was only teasing.

Suddenly he discovered that every moment in the last twelve years of his life had been leading up to this moment. But now even as he was confronted with her startling blue eyes, images of seducing her and whisking her away to some tropical hideaway didn't flood his mind. Instead he noticed the slight nip in the air and worried that his daughter's jacket wasn't zipped up all the way.

"It's been good to see you, Rory, but the little one and I have to get home." Tristan stated and he gathered his daughter up in his arms. Rory smiled tenderly at him.

"You really have changed." She told him and he was pleased at the warmth in her voice, and a tone she had rarely used on him all those years ago. Tristan took his daughter by the hand and started to walk away and then changed his mind and turned back.

"I wanted to be a better person to be worthy of you." Tristan turned and left the park smirking slightly. For the first time he had rendered Rory Gilmore speechless. And as Tristan walked away he was so intent on his daughter that he truly didn't notice a second brunette woman entering the small park holding two cups of coffee.

"Rory, I think I got enough caffeine this time, even for us…Rory!" Lorelai Gilmore exclaimed, waving her hand in front of her daughters face. She followed Rory's gaze to the blond figure that was quickly retreating.

"Who's the hottie?" Lorelai asked.

"Satin." Rory responded absently and then corrected herself.

"No, I guess he's proof that people really can change." She added distractedly.

"Are you sure you're all right?" Lorelai inquired and Rory nodded absentmindedly again.

"Then lets get a move on, little one." Lorelai continued as she hooked her arm through her daughters elbow. As they walked away Rory looked over her shoulder and smiled contentedly when she saw that the swing was still moving slightly in the breeze.


End file.
